South Carolina official to resign over data breach, Nikki Haley announces

The head of South Carolina’s Department of Revenue will step down at the end of the year after a massive data breach exposed 3.6 million Social Security numbers, Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday.

Haley announced the resignation of department director Jim Etter during a press conference to unveil a third-party audit from security firm Mandiant that showed the state could have better protected personal financial data.

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“The main question that I asked Mandiant yesterday was, did we have a chance to do a better job? And we did,” Haley said.

The breach, which stretched from late August to mid-October, compromised the data of 3.8 million tax filers, 1.9 million dependents and 699,900 businesses, Haley said. The data theft affected electronic tax filers only. South Carolina is notifying those whose data was compromised.

There were two key failures by state officials, Haley said — a lack of sufficient security protocols to keep hackers out and Social Security numbers not being encrypted, something the federal government’s Internal Revenue Service doesn’t require, Haley said.

Haley said she’s written a letter to the IRS, telling the agency it needs to change its regulations and require encrypted Social Security numbers.

“Should we have done more? Yes,” Haley said. “We should have done more than we did, we should have done above and beyond what we did, which is why we are going to go ahead and encrypt Social Security numbers — that has already started.”

The IRS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Haley also echoed a sentiment that has been lobbed around Washington during the last few months: That the nation’s cybersecurity defenses are woefully inadequate.

“Where do we go from here? We now have to go into cyber plan mode,” she said. “This is a new era in time where you can’t work with 1970s equipment. You can’t go with compliance standards of the federal government, because both are outdated.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 4:24 p.m. on November 20, 2012.

To Gov. Nikki (adding whole new meaning to the word Governor) Haley & The I.R.S. : ' I will gladly submit my outstanding taxes however I am waiting for 1099's from the F.B.I. And C.I.A. For the Following Years:

First she said everything was okay and nothing different could have been done and then she changed her story and said there were mistakes.. She changed her story! She must be a liar. Where are John McCain and Lindsey Graham? We need a Watergate-style investigation!!!!

This is what you get when you elect republicans, especially a female. They don't want to spend money on those pesky "regulations" and protecting average Americans. Haley is just the South Carolina version of Sarah Palin. A total flake just out to get rich and famous. And actually, Palin would be an upgrade over Haley since Palin, to my knowledge, hasn't committed adultery yet.

And here we thought your War on Women would take a vacation or something..........

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My "war on women"? Oh, you thought I was a democrat or something. Well, moron, your first clue that I'm not a democrat should have been that I denounced adultery. The fact that you even brought up "war on women" makes you one of the most ignorant (to put it mildly) people in America. Try looking at your own party's sins instead of deflecting accountability.